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Documentary: Bill Crow, Jazz Journeyman
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
What do the following five recordings have in common? Stan Getz Plays (1951), the tenor saxophonist's first for Norman Granz's Clef label, which would soon become Verve. Here's Stella by Starlight... Al Haig's Isn't It Romantic from Jazz Will O' the Wisp (1954), one of the pianist's most beautiful trio albums. Go here... Jackie & Roy's Mountain Greenery (1955), which transformed jazz vocal harmony. Go here... Which, by the way, was lifted by Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore ...
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Al Haig and Bud Powell
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Yesterday, I posted about Al Haig playing on early bebop recordings in New York with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Which begs the question, did Haig conceive of his style on his own or was he influenced by other New York jazz pianists besides Art Tatum? The answer is a little of both. As Carl Woideck, author of Charlie Parker: His Music and Life, noted in an email after yesterday's post, “The early history of bebop piano is a challenge ...
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Five New Dexter Gordon Videos
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
As jazz musicians go, Dexter Gordon was among the coolest. He walked cool, he talked cool and he played cool. Cool came naturally to him. Perhaps that side of him came from growing up in Los Angeles in the 1930s. Or perhaps it came from meeting all of the cool musicians his physician father treated, including Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton. Here are five Dexter Gordon videos that recently were uploaded to YouTube: Here's Gordon in Europe in 1971... Here's ...
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Burt Bacharach: Parting Post
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
My final post on Burt Bacharach will look at one of the lowest points in his life that resulted in a song, a theme for ABC's Movie of the Week and a tragic end. We tend to think of Burt as a guy who had it all—he was a brilliant composer, a stunning arranger and a solid pianist; he was athletic, ruggedly handsome and a soft-spoken, charming man who was as comfortable in his living room as he was on ...
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Peanuts Hucko: Big Band Clarinet
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
A few days ago, when I mentioned Peanuts Hucko in a post on trumpeter Don Ferrara, I received a bunch of emails from readers either wondering who he was or chortling about his nickname. Michael “Peanuts" Hucko was born in Syracuse, N.Y., and would become one of the biggest and most prolific clarinetists after Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman and Buddy DeFranco. The name was given to him as a child after displaying an unstoppable passion for the shelled kernels. Hucko ...
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Five New Videos of Count Basie
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
I'm always on the prowl for newly uploaded Count Basie videos. Yesterday, I found five I haven't seen before that appeared recently at YouTube: Here's Count Basie in a short called Hit Parade of 1943 with Dorothy Dandridge... Here's Part 1 of the Basie band in Milan on Italian TV in 1960... Here's Part 2 of Basie in Milan... Here's Basie with Tony Bennett, who sings For Once in My Life, All Of Me, Don't Get Around Much Anymore and ...
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João Gilberto: Buenos Aires, 1962
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Between the release of João Gilberto in 1961 and Boss of Bossa Nova in 1963—and three weeks before the famed bossa nova concert at New York's Carnegie Hall on November 21, 1962—João Gilberto performed at Club 676 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. But he wasn't alone. Traveling with him were Os Cariocas, a phrase that translates as the “guys from Rio de Janeiro." The Cariocas were a four-man pop vocal-harmony group that sang while accompanying themselves on instruments. Recently released on ...
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Backgrounder: Nicola Stilo & Toninho Horta — 'Duets'
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
This week's Backgrounder comes courtesy of Bill Kirchner, who sent along Nicola Stilo and Toninho Horta's gorgeous album Duets (1999). Stilo is an Italian flutist and Horta is a Brazilian singer and guitarist. Both musicians play beautifully and are prolific, having recorded dozens of albums. Recorded in Rome, the album features the following tracks: Naima (John Coltrane), Meu Canário (Toninho Horta), In a Sentimental Mood (Duke Ellington), Bibi's Mood (Nicola Stilo), Bons Amigos (Toninho Horta e Ronaldo Bastos), My One ...
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